REBA Inside Track: Benefits can drive business success in a tight labour market
From economic cost pressures to demographic shifts, macro issues challenging employers to transform organisations and workforces mean that benefits specialists increasingly must step up to support wider strategic HR objectives. Working with talent and development through to reward and wellbeing, the benefits team will be ever more crucial to retain, engage and reskill employees to drive business success in a tight labour market.
Given the vital role played by benefits to aid wider transformation, it was gratifying to note that almost nine in 10 respondents that measure the impact of benefits – on recruitment, retention, engagement, wellbeing, absenteeism and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) – report positive outcomes, according to REBA’s Benefits Design Research 2024, conducted in partnership with Howden Employee Benefits.
Positive outcomes
Even in rarely measured areas, such as the impact of benefits on employee value proposition (EVP), skills, retirement adequacy, workforce costs and HR transformation, those employers able to crunch the data indicate positive outcomes. That said, it is also plausible that poor outcomes are less likely to be measured, so these results need to be read with a few warning lights on.
However, this level of management information is vital – the research shows that significant numbers of respondents are adjusting benefits spend to adapt to changing organisational challenges. Given the sums involved for big strategic projects, knowing what they are playing for will be crucial.
Even though half of respondents fear cost pressures, the research shows that almost none plan to cut costs. Instead, employers are reviewing suppliers to remove duplication, streamline inefficiencies and get better value for money, as well as investing in areas that will deliver better future benefits management and engagement to meet the needs of today’s workforces.
Review, reallocate and act
The game plan for the next few years will be reviewing, reallocating and acting according to need. This is a tough task in itself in the face of significant insurance price inflation, the national minimum wage rate increase in April and the planned expansion of auto-enrolment criteria to cover more workers. From 2023 to 2025, the vast majority (91%) of respondents will increase spend, or plan to, in at least one key area.
The survey asked respondents to indicate which areas of benefits at their organisations needed urgent attention, where they planned to increase spending, and, ultimately, which projects and strategic transformations they had firmly committed to for 2024-25. The results indicate that technology and financial wellbeing projects will be a major focus over the next two years, with pensions and retirement adequacy looking like future fast-movers.
This is noteworthy, because these are more complex, often expensive core benefits areas. It’s an indication of the seriousness with which employers are taking benefits, even when the environment might still feel tight for many.
